Insulator.



= B. HETHERINGTON INSULATOR.

APPLICATION FILED JAN. 8, 1912 Patented Aug. 26, 1 913.

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BERT HETHERINGTON, F EVEREST, KANSAS.

INSULATOR.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Au 26,1913.

Application filed January 8, 1912. Serial No. 670,101.

To all whom it may concern Beit known that I, BERT HE'IHERING'IUN, a citizen of the United States, residing at. Everest, in the county of Brown and State 550i Kansas, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Insulators; and I do' declare the following to be a full, clear, andexact description of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to 10.;which.it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to insulators, and more especially to those having a twisted slot; and the object of the same is to imlb prove the shape and disposition of said slot and to provide .the insulator body with grooves for a purpose to appear below, and also to improve the construction of the fastener therefor. These and other objects are carried out by the construction hereinafter more fully described and claimed, and as shown in the drawings wherein- Figure 1 is a perspective view of one end of a cross arm such as is usually carried by an'ordinary telegraph pole, showing two of my improved insulators mounted thereon. Fig. 2 is an enlarged vertical section through the insulator and a portion of the cross arm, showing the fastener in elevation. Fig. 3 is a perspective detail of the insulator block and Fig. 4 a similar detail of the fastener. 1n the drawings the letter A designates the cross arm which is usually made of wood and carried by a telegra 'ih pole at some distance above the ground, and on each end of this cross arm-are usually disposed several glass insulators sustaining wires carrying currents of "arious kinds and for various purposes. It [has long been the custom to 40 mount wooden pegs in said cross arms, provide wooden threads on their projecting upper ends, and screw onto the same rather large-insulators made of coarse glass which have proved a tempting target for bad boys and occasionally for other marksmen, with 'the result that well-aimed missiles frequently bfioke' the glass so that its pieces fell to the groundfa'ndleft the wire hanging over the cr'ossfarru. Efforts-have been made to lio nieet tl\ese (-.ondit-ioi s ,far as possible by theq) )dlictiono1" insulators made in a vasand held to theeross arm by means, and my present invention type of insulators employing beta r v v stifa twi sted'z" ,if'oblique slot in which the l ne proved form of fastening device which takes the place of the wooden plug above described, lasts longer because 'it is of metal, weakens the cross arm less because it needs asmaller hole, and possesses other functions and advantages which will be brought out in the following specification.

Referring now more particularly tothe accompanying drawings, the insulator block best seen detached in Fig. *3 is composed of g ass, porcelain, or other good non-conducting material which is generally friabl'e'and will therefore be mounted close .upon the top of the cross arm A and of rather small size so as to make it a difiicult target to strike with a stone or other missile, besides which it is of course cheaper to make a small insulatorand the same is lighter in weight. The general configuration of the insulator block 1 is that of a cube, and I will describe it as seen at the right of Fig. 1, although it is obvious that it may be inverted as seen at the left thereof or in Fig. 3, or it could he turned in a variety of positions as will be explained below. The body, then, is provided across its top and bottom and down its two sides with a rather wide groove 2, and around the bottom of this groove is a somewhat narrower and preferably rounded groove 3 leaving shoulders at at opposite sides thereof as perhaps best seen in Fig. 3.

The body 1 is also provided around its exterior in a plane at right angles to the plane of the combined grooves just described, with another groove 5 made much shallower than either, this groove being for the ordinary tie wire commonly employed at present in case the lineman should prefer to fasten the line wire to this improved insulator by the use of such tie wire. The body is provided in what is usually its upper end with an ob-' lique slot 6 cutting across the grooves 2 and 3 at the center of the upper stretch of these grooves, and continued downward'into the body of the insulator to about the vertical center thereof. At this point the obliquity of the slot is much less than at the top of'the body 1, so that it passes almost but not quite so that it cannot straight through the body as at 7; and of course the width of this slot is suflicient to receive the line wire which is to be strung through this insulator. I

The fastener for this improved insulator, best seen in Fig. 4, is made of two pieces of metal and a nut. One piece is the hook whose shank 10 is straight and of sufficient length to pass through the cross arm A and receive the nut 11 at its lower end, the hook proper being formed by deflecting the upper extremity of the shank into a horizontal arm 12 and then bending the outer end of this arm downward in a :bill 13 having a pointed 'tip 14, so that the shank, arm, and bill constitute three sides of a cli which is proportioned so that it will stan Y within the groove 3 aroundthe insulator block 1 as seen in Fig. 2. This .view also illustrates how the shallow groove 5 around said body at right angles to the groove 3 would permit a tie wire T topass around the insulator and the two vertical arms of the cli .Without touching any metal arts. This view furthermore illustrates tie fact that thecombined depth of the grooves 3 and 2 is such that the outer face of the members of the clip stand entirely within the contour of the cube-shaped body 1, so that in case some other wire should fall or be drawn upon and across the arm A it could not come 'in contact with any metal portion of the fastener. The other member'ofthe fastener is a clip plate 15 havin eyes 16 near its extremities, the width 0 this plate being sufiicient to fill the wider groove 2 and rest upon the shoulders 4, and its length suflicient between its eyes 16 to permit them to engage the upright members of the hook. But attention is directed to the fact that the bill 13 stands slightly oblique to the length of the shank 10 so that its tip 14 is nearer said shank than the angle 17 between the bill and thehorizontal arm 12. The purpose of this detail of construction will appear from Fig. 4. When the plate 15 has one eye 16 strung on the shank 10' and is brought up into position, the other eye 16 passes ever the sharp tip 14 and springs the upright arms slightly apart with the result that, whether the insulator block be in place as shown in Fig. 2 or not, the clip plateis frictionally held between the u right arms of the hook e accidentally lost and will not be accidentally displaced from position, and the block will be held therein even when the entire device is carried about and quite roughly handled. By preference the rodfrom which the hook is made is of rather small gage so that it is unnecessary to bore a hole of considerable size through the arm A.

it will not be nccessaryfor the purposes of this specification to amplify the various uses to which this insulator can be out, further than to state that it is possible to use it above or'beneath the arm A or against any face of any member which is not too thick for the passage of the shank 10. WVl en the cross arm occurs on a pole which in a valley, the insulator is by preference inverted as seen at the left of Fig. 1. At other times the insulator is by preference employed as .seen at the right of that view, whether the line wire is to pass straight through it as shown in full lines or obliquely to its sides as shown in the dotted lines. After deciding where the insulator is to be placed, a. hole H is bored through thearm A, and perhaps a second hole or socket h for the tip 14, the clip plate is then laid over these holes and the block over the plate, the line wire is then drawn taut, deflected so that it will pass into the oblique slot, en-

gaged therein and pressed down to its bottom 7, and the insulator block 1 turned into alinement with the ,arm A; and finally the shank 10 of the hook is passed through the hole H and the tip 14 of-its bill 13 down. over the block and into the hole It, the nut 11 being applied last to tighten up all parts. If the block should be broken by malicious youngsters or in any way, some or all of the pieces thereof will remain within the fastoner unless it is broken into rather small pieces, and in any event the wire will be left within the-rectangle comprised by the three sides of the hook and the clip plate-and cannot therefore get off the crossarm A or come into contact with any other wire or insulator. Attention is directed to the fact that while the slot is quite oblique to the line of the wire at the oint 6 where it opens through the wall of t 1e block 1, it extends nearly straight through the same at the point 7 where the wire oojmes to rest therein; and yet the fact that it is here oblique to some extent, gives the wire a li1tle kink as it lies in the bottom of thi. slot and therefore avoids the necessityfomthe tie wires T so commonly employed in insulators.

What is claimedas new is:

1. In an insulator, the; combination with an insulating block made externally squareand having an encircling groove and a longitudinal wire-receiving slot, of a fastener having means at its inner end for attachment to a sup ort and having itsouter end formed into iiook shape so as to simultaneously engage the grooves inthree faces of said block.

2. In an insulator, the combination with the insulating block made of substantially cube-shape wlth an encircling groove, and a wire-receiving slot through it in a direction substantially at right angles-to the plane of said straig t shank, an arm standing at right angles thereto, and a bill standing substan: tially at right angles to the arm and parallel move; of a 'fastener comprlsing a shank, a horizontal arm with the shank, these three elements engaging said groove in the insulator, and means for securing the shank to a support.

3. In an insulator, the combination with the insulating block made of substantially cube-shape with an encircling groove, and a wire-receiving slot through said body in a direction at an angle to the plane of said groove; of a fastener comprising a straight standing at right and a bill standing substantially at right angles to the arm and parallel with the shank, these three elements constituting a clip engaging said groove in the block. a clip plate having eyes near its extremities one of which engages said shank and the other of which engages said bill, and means for securing said shank to a support.

4. In an insulator, the combination with the insulating block made of substantially cube-shape with a surrounding wide groove and a surrounding rounded groove formed in the bottom of the wide groove, and with a line-wire-slot through its body substantially at right angles to the plane of said of a hookshaped fastener formed angles thereto,

2T0) VPSI o? a metal rod of a size to fit within said rounded groove, one arm of the same constituting a supporting shank, and a clipplate adapted to rest in said wider groove and having eyes near its extremities engaged by said rod.

In an insulator, the combination with the insulating block having a line-wire-slot through its body 'and a groove encircling the-same in a plane at right angles to the length of said slot; of :1 fastener comprising an attaching shank, an arm projecting at right angles from said shank, and a bill projecting nearly at right angles from the outer end of said arm and in the plane of the shank and. having a sharpened tip nearer said shank than the length of said arm, these three members constituting a clip engaging three stretches of said groove in the block; and a clip-plate engaging the fourth stretch thereof and having eyes through its extremities spared a greater distance apart than the normal distance between said shank and tip, for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in presence of two subscribing witnesses.

BERT HETHERINGTON.

\Yituesses:

T. C. Honzvnnn, 'WM. CAMrIoN. 

